In Memoriam: a Dead Rising retrospective – Part 1

Will Ooi — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:46:19 +0000

This blog is a tribute to the original Dead Rising, the game that helped usher back into mainstream consciousness the lovable appeal and popularity of the Zombie Apocalypse, a genre now near-oversaturated and encompassing almost all forms of media. Whether it be the hilarious Undead Nightmare expansion to Red Dead Redemption or real-life "Zombie Walk" social-event-meets-cosplay events, would any of these tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating moments truly have been possible were it not for the fun people had photographing female zombie knickers for high 'Erotica' scores through the camera lens of the game's everyman main character, Frank West, himself clothed in a tight-fitting red rose dress direct from Willamette Mall's high-end fashion section? Wait, what? That wasn't how you played the game? No way.

Esteemed origins Japanese developers Capcom had previously frightened a generation of players in the mid-90's with its original entry to the Biohazard/Resident Evil series, simultaneously coining a new term for the experience as we came to grips with the jump up in quality of the 32-bit generation. "Survival Horror" made its debut on the original Playstation and took gamers on a horrific expedition through a sprawling mansion and secret underground laboratories populated by nightmarish creatures, forcing them to salvage scarce healing and ammunition resources - knowing full well that the more the player explored the game setting, the more risk they'd encounter. The need to conserve bullets wherever possible, accompanied by both a harsh difficulty level and limited amount of in-game ink ribbons to simply even save one’s progress, ensured that the 'survival' aspect of the title was alive and well, even if that meant that the selectable player characters, Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, often weren't. Add to that a 'horror' attribute stemming from classic moments such as the infamous dog-jumping-through-the-window trick, the unsettlingly gorgeous but deliberately claustrophobic pre-rendered backgrounds and just as limiting "tank-like" control scheme which always kept players within the grasp of the game's multiple and grotesque enemies, Resident Evil was an instant, terrifying success. ~

Also seen on Gamasutra and Galaxy Next Door

Real Life Zombie Apocalypse Contingency Plans: The First 24 Hours

Will Ooi — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:00:00 +0000

It is yet another miscellaneous, mundane, midweek work day. While sitting at your desk in front of your computer monitor, you find out via Google news that the Zombie Apocalypse has actually, finally, arrived. Initial panic sets in as the realisation hits that the world, as you know it, will never be the same again. [...]

Will Ooi » Zombies

In Memoriam: a Dead Rising retrospective – Part 1

Also seen on Gamasutra and Galaxy Next Door

Real Life Zombie Apocalypse Contingency Plans: The First 24 Hours